Winter fest heads for success

The Graeagle-Plumas Alliance, made up of businesses in the community, is working diligently to make the upcoming Winter Snow Festival the event to look forward to this winter.

The festival is scheduled for Valentines Day and Presidents Day Weekend, Feb. 14 – 18, 2013, and will offer a wide variety of snow and winter activates for the public and for sweethearts to enjoy.

The first winter fest was in 2011 and was held in the Portola and Lake Davis area. This year the venue is changing to the Johnsville Ski Hill and Plumas-Eureka State Park.

The entire weekend will be a fundraiser for the state park and the ski hill.

“The ski hill has had a lift donated to it,” said GPA co-chairperson Jeanne Graham. “We’re trying to raise enough funds to pay for it to go in.”

However, the ski hill and state park are not the only community entities that will benefit from the Winter Snow Fest.

“We’re trying to create a festive activity that is going to perpetuate itself on an annual basis to bring in more dollars to the community,” said the other GPA co-chairperson, Chris David. “This is to help improve the business and economic growth at the time of the year when it is most needed.”

Along with a change in venue the GPA is also offering a new twist to the events that will be featured.

“I can tell you this: We’ll be a success because we’re bringing in outside champions,” David said.

The weekend will now offer sanctioned races for snowshoers, cross-country skiers and longboarders. These races will lead up to the national finals in each event so it will bring in outside champions to the area.

David and Graham said they are expecting to receive more entries and spectators for the events. They are also designing the festival to encourage people to stay the weekend.

David said they will have a snowmobile poker run on Saturday, and then a breakfast run the next morning. There will also be nighttime activities such as live music and dancing at Longboards Bar and Grill.

The festival also caters to families and children with the Snow Carnival that features snowman-building contests, sledding and snowball tosses.

“The main key to this whole thing is to involve as many of the locals as possible,” David said. “Believe in it, support it, talk it up. We’re trying to create a whole atmosphere of fun.”